Escaping his ‘comfort zone:’ How an experience in Rio and a Vince Lombardi quote led Justin Pierce to a House seat
By Caitlin Coakley - caitlin.coakley@azcapitoltimes.com
Published: May 27, 2011 at 8:05 am
Republican Justin Pierce, a labor attorney, takes the oath of office May 25 for his appointment to the District 19 seat vacated by Kirk Adams. Pierce’s wife, Cortney, stands next to him while retired Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles “Bud” Jones administers the oath and House Speaker Andy Tobin looks on. (Photo by Ryan Cook/RJ Cook Photography)
Justin Pierce remembers when the calls started coming in.
Former House Speaker Kirk Adams had officially announced his resignation and the precinct committeemen for Legislative District 19 were beginning their search for a replacement. Pierce, a labor attorney, son of Arizona Corporation commissioner and former state lawmaker Gary Pierce, a grassroots activist and generally affable guy, was on their list of people they’d like to see in the House seat.
But Pierce, wasn’t nearly as confident at first.
“My response was, ‘keep looking.’ I wasn’t interested,” he said. “I was doing great in my practice, and I was in my comfort zone. Things were going along just fine, and the last thing that I wanted to do was disturb that.”
Every time he hung up the phone, however, Pierce would get “a nagging feeling.”
After all, he had wanted to eventually run for office since he was 19 and traveled to Rio de Janeiro for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being in a Third World country, he said, made him realize how important it was to protect the integrity of public policy in the United States.
But was it the right time?
Pierce, 36, said he finally sat down and talked about the prospect of getting into the state Legislature with his wife Cortney. At first, her reaction was the same as his: “Isn’t there anyone else?”
But Pierce said he ultimately decided that there was more to life than finding and keeping a comfortable routine.
“I finally started making those phone calls back and said, ‘I think I’m in,’” Pierce said.
What surprised him most was the swell of support that quickly followed and ultimately buoyed him to a majority vote support from the district’s precinct committeemen in the very first round of voting — an outcome that Wayne Gardner, LD19 GOP chairman, said was remarkable, considering Pierce was one of 11 candidates in the running for the spot.
“He is very well-liked throughout the district, has a good base,” Gardner said. “That’s how he got his majority vote.”
Pierce has been involved in politics at the grassroots level since before he could vote. In high school, he said he recalls many hours spent hammering yard signs into the ground and sticking flyers on people’s doors. On election days and nights, he said he was usually on the phone urging people to get out and vote.
Though he became a precinct committeeman when he turned 18, his experience with grassroots politics had not translated into a desire to launch his own campaign.
“There seemed to be a lot of people in politics who were in it for themselves,” he said, “whose egos never seemed to be pure, and I stepped back and said, ‘I would never do that.’”
It was the trip to Brazil in 1994 that started him thinking. He recalls witnessing firsthand how poor policy can have an effect on a country.
When he first got into Rio de Janeiro, Pierce said he bought a bus pass for 100 cruzeiros, which was the country’s currency at the time. In four months, the price of that pass had ballooned to 1,000 cruzeiros.
“The inflation was terrible,” he said. “People couldn’t save their money — if you got your paycheck and just put your money under your pillow, you couldn’t get by.”
It was an experience still fresh in his mind when his plane touched back down on American soil two years later.
“I remember looking around and going, ‘we are so blessed.’ And I kind of made a promise to myself at the time that I would stay involved, and one day it would be incumbent on me to put my name out there and actually run,” he said.
Pierce didn’t immediately start filing exploratory committees. He spent the next chapter in his life finishing his education, first getting a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Arizona State University, then graduating from Georgetown University’s law school. He returned to Arizona in 2003, degrees in hand, to start his career. Meanwhile, he continued to serve at the grassroots level as a precinct committeeman.
The combination of his education, career as an attorney and political experience means Pierce will be prepared for the Legislature, said seatmate Rep. Justin Olson, who endorsed Pierce at the district meeting.
“He’s spent the past several years as an attorney, arguing conservatively before the 9th Circuit Court, successfully,” Olson said. “What stands out most about him is the tremendous amount of experience and talent that will be very valuable to the state and to the district.”
Fellow LD19 politicos describe Pierce as a likeable, smart man who has sat on the sidelines long enough. Gardner said he has suspected for years that Pierce would eventually hold public office.
“I think it’s just been a question of time — when was the right opportunity, what was the right office that he wanted,” Gardner said.
Even Adams said he had approached Pierce about running for the Legislature, though Adams said he stayed out of the race for his replacement because he felt like it wouldn’t be appropriate to get involved.
“The number one thing about Justin is that he is very smart,” Adams said. “He is very educated, and he is very thoughtful. I think that will serve him well.”
The deliberation that Pierce put into his decision to run is the sort of thoughtfulness his political supporters tout — a willingness to take in as much information as possible and change his mind if necessary.
“He is very good at looking at the pros and cons and anticipating any unrelated consequences,” Gardner said.
To describe his political philosophy, Pierce favors an anecdote about legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. The coach supposedly gathered his team members one day, held up the football and told his players, “This is a football.”
The lesson, Pierce said, is to always make sure the fundamentals of any activity, from sports to crafting legislation, are solid. To him, those fundamentals are life, liberty and private property rights.
“The question I would have for just about any legislation is, ‘Does this legislation protect life? Does it protect property? Does it protect liberty?’ If it doesn’t, it’s probably not a good bill,” he said.
His top priority as a lawmaker, he said, is to make sure government lives within its means. With the Legislature making drastic cuts and balancing the budget last session, Pierce said the next step, which he intends to push, is to set aside money in the state’s rainy day fund to prepare for the next economic downturn.
He acknowledges that socking away a portion of the state’s money will likely mean more budget cuts, even as state revenues are improving, and he said he is prepared for the criticism that will follow.
“That’s going to hurt a little bit. It might hurt a lot,” he said. “And some people are going to suffer because of that belt tightening, and I feel terrible about that. But we cannot afford another ‘rainy day’ like the one we’ve just had.”
Pierce also said he intends to serve with respect, both for the institution and his new colleagues.
Though he said he will stand up for his convictions, he hopes to do so in a way that people who disagree can respect, and he vows to treat those with whom he may disagree with respect, in turn.
“I’m not here to alienate people,” he said. “We may not agree all of the time, but I want to be someone that isn’t about ego. It’s not about me, it’s about the people around me.”
